Test Drive Unlimited 2

Update: Atari has provided Shacknews with a statement, saying that Eden Games is not closed. However, the company does confirm that it has "divested" from the studio: "Our earnings statement contained a report about the divestment of Eden Studios. We want to make it clear that the studio has not closed and that we will continue to support the console and PC games of Eden Studios, notably Test Drive Unlimited 2, while this process is underway. The divestment is in line with our previously stated strategy of exploiting our popular intellectual property library on mobile devices, where he have seen strong initial success, and via online games and licensing."

Original Story:Test Drive Unlimited developer Eden Games was as good as dead after owner Atari laid off most of the staff last year, but now it's official. In its financial results for last year, filed this week, the publisher confirmed it's been selling off what assets remain.

The results (via Edge) tell the sorry truth, if you want every last ounce of financial jargon.

It's all been downhill since Atari fired 51 of the French studio's 80 employees in May, sparking a symbolic strike. Test Drive Unlimited 2 wasn't received at all well, see, and Atari had ended up issuing free DLC in apology for its many "issues."

Do you hear that faint wailing in the background? That's the sound of a thousand bank accounts going "noooo!" at the appearance of the Autumn Steam Sale. Thankfully for our wallets, it only lasts until Sunday, with dozens of new deals every day. Consider it a warm up for the monolithic Steam Christmas sale next month.

The sale kicked off yesterday, but you've still got six hours to grab some of the fantastic day one deals. The marvellous Orcs Must Die is just £2.99 / $3.74 (we gave it a score of 90 in our Orcs Must Die review). Portal 2 is selling for just £6.79 / $10.19. If you haven't played Mass Effect yet, the first game is £2.49 / $4.99, and Mass Effect 2 is 75% off at £4.99 / $12.49.

If you're more partial to an arcade explodathon starring Gordon Freeman, Renegade Ops is £4.99 / $7.49 (or you can grab a four pack for £9.99 / $14.99). All of Dejobaan's games are also on sale as well, including AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome.

Atari's plans to lay off more than 50 percent of Eden Games' workforce, plus alleged "mismanagement," were the catalysts for a one-day symbolic strike today by the developer of Test Drive Unlimited 2.

"For several years we are witnessing multiple leader changes at its head, they did not hesitate to get rich despite financial difficulties," said a statement by Eden staff, sent to Gamasutra. Developers at the Lyon, France-based studio complained that they've been subjected to layoffs for a decade, to no meaningful end other than the loss of jobs.

"Each time the recovery project was beautiful and promising, and ended in a failure," the statement said. "We are skeptical about the proposed [plan]."

Atari's unwillingness to negotiate, or so Eden employees allege, were the final straw, and so they struck "to show the employees' determination and mobilization."

Eden's demands include an audience with Atari CEO Jim Wilson, access to financial records regarding the health of the company, and assurances that Eden employees are treated the same as other Atari employees.

Eden Games – they behind Test Drive Unlimited 2 and the V-Rally series – and have had enough of their treatment from Atari, and in the face of enormous redundancies at the company and have gone on strike today. GI.biz report that in the face of sackings, the French studio has said enough, and are refusing to work. And they’ve a few choice words to explain why.

Eden Games, developer of the Test Drive Unlimited series and Alone in the Dark reboot, is on a "symbolic day strike" today to protest parent company Atari's plans to lay off a whopping 51 of the French studio's 80 employees.

The statement claims that "We had anticipated the problems faced by the company last year... For several years we are witnessing multiple leader changes at its head, they did not hesitate to get rich despite financial difficulties."

An anonymous Eden member has told Gamasutra that the studio decided yesterday to strike after making no progress in two weeks of talks with Atari, and that the layoffs are expected to occur "around June."

The unnamed employee claims that the compensation being offered "is basically half" of one that was offered to victims of a 2009 restructuring at Atari. One of the striker statement's wishes is to "be sure that an employee of Eden Games is compensated the same way as an employee of Atari."

Curiously, Eden also wishes to receive mysterious "financial records" its accountant has requested. The Eden employee mysteriously told Gamasutra that "Unfortunately we cannot give you the detail of the missing documents, this would break the confidentiality agreement." Missing, you say?

Eden's latest game, Test Drive Unlimited 2, received a lukewarm response from critics but the mystery employee told Gamasutra the studio expects it will sell 900,000 copies--an estimate, as Atari won't reveal numbers. "We believe it can be a long-time seller," said the Edenite, as "players continue to play and enjoy the game" even though "there were several issues at TDU2's launch."

Joystiq report that the Exploration pack for Test Drive Unlimited 2 has been released! Twenty new missions, two new mission types, two new cars (a Lancia Stratos and Dodge Charger), new clothes to wear and more, as well as a bumload of bugfixes that include “Cars no longer launched into the air by glitches in the road” and “impact with tress is now less severe”. Boo!

My dream online driving game would consist almost entirely of people climbing out of their cars to examine crash damage, their overweight avatars clutching their face in both hands and making noises of unfathomable sadness. Anyway, you’ll find the full feature listing of the Exploration pack after the jump(more…)

Upon release, Test Drive Unlimited 2 was a bit of a mess. Thankfully Joystiq have reported that an update hitting the PC this weekend adds new content and irons out some of the bugs, and is available for free.

The Exploration Pack adds new cars, events and outfits. There's also a stereoscopic 3D mode added should you have the set-up and wish to race in all three dimensions. The complete patch list can be found after the jump.

New content

20 new events

2 new events types

Extreme convoy: one mistake and the mission is over

Timed convoy: it is a convoy mission...but with a timer!

Each completed event gives access to a new wreck

20 new wrecks give 2 new cars (10 wrecks = 1 car):

Lancia Stratos version Rallye

Dodge charger 1969

3 new discovery levels

1 new set of clothes (explorer) Male/Female

2 new MP Races (Specifically for the Lancia Stratos version Rallye)

3D on PC & PS3

TV Media: Help Channel (to explain new features and content)

The update includes the following Gameplay improvements:

Players can sell their cars in the used car dealer (including cars won in duels)

Effect of collisions with rocks and trees is now less severe

Instant challenges have been tweaked to exclude very short or very long races

Cruising as a passenger now unlocks roads

Lower car-road impact sounds

New restrictions on MP races (to stop the prevalence of top end cars in all races)

Session lost messages are now more descriptive

Koenigsegg CCXR performance tweaked to be competitive with Bugatti Veyrons

Atari have released a patch to fix some of the major issues with Test Drive Unlimited 2. Disappearing friends lists, invites, Clubs, save file corruption and login issues are all tackled in the update. As a way of saying sorry for the launch problems, Eden Games will be releasing the first chunk of premium DLC to all players for free.

The patch notes were posted on the Test Drive Unlimited 2 forums. Sadly there's no mention of a fix for sunglasses getting stuck on racer's faces.

Friends list should no longer disappearLogin issues should be resolvedFriend invites should now consistently workClub issue should be fixed. Clubs are now online.Further enhancements to prevent file corruption have been added.Additional back-end functionality to recover previously corrupted save files has been aded.

Eden Games have made a statement explaining their decision to release the Exploration Pack DLC for free. "Our community has been amazing and helped us quickly identify a number of issues, which we have made significant progress in addressing in the upcoming patches. We really appreciate your patience in this matter and we would like to announce that we will be making the first premium DLC for the game free for everybody as a way of saying thank you."

The exploration pack adds new wrecks to the game that will let players discover and unlock the Lancia Stratos version Rally and the 1969 Dodge Charger.

You may remember that Test Drive Unlimited 2 did not have a great Valentine’s Day. Launched to cries of, “Er, could you finish it now please?”, its buggy state did not win favour. Eden Games and Atari are attempting a big old “sorry” by offering not only a patch that addresses a lot of issues, but also the first globule of DLC for utterly free. More info lies beneath.

In a surprise move for a videogame, free-roaming racer Test Drive Unlimited 2 “was released” last week, and is now available to buy in shops both real and imaginary the world over. You can read John’s impressions of the beta here. It looks like all is not well in car land, however, as the game’s shipped with some nasty technical issues across all platforms that Atari are currently working to fix. Poor cars.(more…)